Illness puts woman out in the cold

Sunday

Nov 4, 2012 at 6:00 AMNov 4, 2012 at 6:56 AM

Dianne Williamson

Bonnie Belmonte slowly raked the storm-tossed leaves in the front yard of her clapboard bungalow off June Street. She was raised in the house and inherited the property when her father died in 2007. The mortgage is paid off and she’s up to date on the taxes.

These days, however, she lives in the blue Ford Focus parked in the driveway. Her house, quite literally, makes her sick.

“I love my house,” she said. “It was my healthy place, my whole life. But there’s nowhere I can live now except my car.”

The 59-year-old Worcester woman is a victim of severe multiple chemical sensitivities, or MCS, a little-understood and controversial condition that causes allergy-like reactions to a variety of chemicals. For sufferers of MCS, the world is a toxic horror house rife with perfume, smoke, shampoo, cleaning products, fabrics, pollen and dust that wreaks havoc on the body’s immune system.

Belmonte was able to live in her home by using only baking soda and vinegar to clean everything. Then, three years ago, the familiar symptoms of MCS struck — shortness of breath, dizziness, disorientation, swelling and pressure on her eyes. She pitched a tent in her yard and called MicroZyme Technologies Inc., which provides indoor air quality testing. An inspection revealed an elevated level of mold throughout the house, according to David Roy, MicroZyme owner.

Belmonte receives SSDI and can’t afford to pay the estimated $75,000 and up for mold remediation and other repairs to the home. Her homeowners’ insurance has refused to cover the costs.

So she continued to live in the tent and sometimes stayed with a friend two blocks away. For the last two months, she’s lived in her car. She tries to maintain a positive attitude, which was a challenge last week when the rain and wind from Sandy pounded the little Ford.

“I laid under my quilt and cried,” she admitted. “I was scared to death. But things could always be worse.”

Last week, she was dressed in six layers of sweatshirts and jackets. Her car is packed with pillows and blankets. A neighbor loaned her a transistor radio so she doesn’t have to keep her car running. She parks the Ford next to the house, where at night she can see the light from her kitchen window.

“My family was so close, and there was so much love in this house,” she said. “That’s what holds me together.”

Both her primary care doctor and Dr. N. Thomas LaCava, who specializes in environmental medicine and has been treating Belmonte for more than a decade, have told her she shouldn’t enter her house until the mold is removed.

“Bonnie definitely has multiple chemical sensitivities and it’s largely caused by the mold present in her domicile,” Dr. LaCava said. “She can’t go back into her house because the mold would make her very sick. … I’ve seen lots of people like this. It’s sad. I’ve seen people’s lives destroyed. They lose their homes, jobs and families. I’ve seen people move to the desert and live in tents.”

Belmonte said she developed MCS almost two decades ago. She was living in an apartment at the time, when she felt her throat constrict and she couldn’t breathe. She consulted several specialists and was initially diagnosed with diseases such as lupus and cancer. Unlike true allergies, where the causes are understood, MCS is generally regarded as “idiopathic,” which means it has no known cause. Nor is it recognized as an organic, chemical-caused illness by the American Medical Association, although it’s recognized by other organizations.

In Worcester, perhaps the most well-known sufferer of MCS was Holy Cross football coach Dan Allen, who died in 2004 at age 48. His family subsequently sued two businesses that worked in the college’s field house, saying that fumes, chemical dust and other airborne irritants migrated into the coaches’ offices.

Belmonte’s options are depressingly limited. Twice divorced, she has no children, and her parents and younger sister are dead. She has a brother, but doesn’t know where he is. She’s contacted several social service agencies for help, but was rebuffed because she owns her own home, although the Red Cross gave her a cellphone. She can’t sleep at shelters because they use cleaning chemicals that make her sick.

Her next door neighbor, Erika Wade, has driven Belmonte to various agencies and tries to keep an eye on her.

“Having her out there is heartbreaking,” Wade said. “She doesn’t want to bother anyone. That house is all she has. She has no support system.”

Belmonte spends her mornings at the Salvation Army, where she washes up in the bathroom. A voracious reader, she checks out historical nonfiction at the Worcester Public Library and recently finished the epic biography of John Adams. Her mother was a freelance writer and Belmonte spent three years at Clark University.

Dr. LaCava said a treatment plan of drugs and detoxification was developed for Belmonte at a Groton medical center, but the program isn’t covered by her insurer, Medicare and MassHealth.

“If she doesn’t get help, she’ll end up on the street,” Dr. LaCava said.

Winter is coming. But Belmonte said she’s not afraid, nor does she indulge in self pity. She said she’s confident that someday she’ll get the help she needs to return to her home and sleep in the bedroom she hasn’t seen in almost three years.

“You learn to live with what life has dealt you,” she said. “I try to think positive, but I know I need help. And I’ll never lose hope that somehow, someday, I’ll get back into my house.”